Derby Wars

The Great Wall of DoomsDames

By Casey Purcella

Minie Gonzalez

Duke City Derby's home teams got their season off to a proper start on Saturday, June 19, holding the first official bouts of the season after last month's scrimmages. In the first bout, the DoomsDames held off the Derby Intelligence Agency (DIA) for a 115 –85 win. Later the Ho-Bots pummeled the brand-new Taos Whiplashes, smacking them around for nearly the entire match on their way to a 195-74 victory.

The DoomsDames started to pull away early in their bout, taking the lead by outscoring DIA 22-0 in the third jam for the first points of the match. After that, the teams were only able to grab a few points per jam, and the Dames maintained about a 20-point gap. Then DIA scored 15 points with eight minutes left in the first half to reduce the DoomsDames' lead to 13. DIA continued to fight back, making the score 58-50 before the Dames scored the next seven points to take a 15-point lead at halftime.

Minie Gonzalez

Injured Whiplashes player Conan the Librarian, who watched the game from the scorer's table, said DoomsDames blockers did an exceptional job of stopping the DIA jammers. “[DIA] had good jammers, but they were consistently stuck behind a wall of DoomsDames,” she said.

“Our jammers are pretty new to roller derby, so it is understandable that they might have trouble negotiating the DoomsDames' pack,” DIA skater Carson B. Demented said.

In the second half, the chasm narrowed once again, as DIA outscored the Dames eight to one over the first six jams, shrinking their deficit to just eight points again. However, they went on to score the next 23 points, making the score 89-58. “The DoomsDames came back strong in the second half,” Carson B. Demented said. While DIA was able to halve the lead with 15 unanswered points, the DoomsDames quickly regained control and spend the last 12 minutes of the bout tending to a 30-point advantage.

Minie Gonzalez

“[The bout] was still close until they had a power jam,” Carson B. Demented said. “We only lost by 30 points, which is not a huge margin in roller derby.” Despite the loss, Carson B. Demented and Conan both said they saw improvement in DIA's new players. Conan singled out jammer Justin Beaver for praise.

In the second bout, the Whiplashes actually managed to hold a slim lead after seven minutes, scoring 12 points to the Ho-Bots' 11. In the eighth jam, however, immediately after the Whiplashes took the lead, the Ho-Bots snatched it right back, scoring 19 points to lead 30–12. The lead expanded to 26, to 30, to 44 and then to 56 points by halftime. While the Whiplashes had managed 55 points in the first half, they scored only 19 over the last half hour of the bout, while the Bots continued their prolific scoring to win the bout with a 121-point margin of victory.

Conan cited the Whiplashes' youth in explaining the loss and noted her team's lack of injuries as one of the bout's positive results. She added that the Ho-Bots were stiff competition for a brand-new team. “The Ho-Bots are probably the best home team in the league right now, and that's the best team we played,” she said. “DIA is probably one of the weaker teams in our league, and I'm hoping that will play in our favor.”

In previous derby action, the Duke City Derby's traveling Muñecas Muertas team lost to the Arch Rival Roller Girls All-Stars 127-75 in a June 5 bout in St. Louis. Next up for the league is a road trip to meet the Whiplashes in Taos on Saturday, July 10, where the Muñceas Muertas will play the 20th-ranked Women's Flat Track Derby Association team, the Assassination City All-Star Travel Team.